Godolphin trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni has been given an eight year ban from racing by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) for administering prohibited anabolic steroids to 15 horses in his care.
The BHA held a hearing on Thursday 25 April 2013 at which the case was heard. As well as handing out the ban to Al Zarooni the BHA also prohibited the 15 horses from running for six months until 9 October 2013.
Jamie Stier, Director of Raceday Operations and Regulation at the BHA, explained: "The length of suspension reflects the period beyond which the BHA is confident that the horses in question can have derived no performance-related benefit from the administration of these prohibited substances."
The banned horses include: Artigiano, Certify, Opinion Poll, and Valley of Queens.
Simon Crisford, Godolphin racing manager, stated: "This is a terrible situation. It's an awful situation that Godolphin has found themselves in. Mr Al Zarooni acted with awful recklessness and caused tremendous damage, not only to Godolphin and British racing. I think it will take a very long time for Godolphin to regain the trust of the British public. We're shocked and completely outraged by the actions he has taken."
The speed with which the authorities have acted has been taken as a move to limit the damage this doping episode has caused to the integrity of British racing. UK bookmakers have also played their part in trying to limit the impact of the scandal by refunding ante-post bets on the horses involved in the ban, particularly Certify who was entered for the 1000 Guineas.
